Larry Smith(XLV)
Born and raised in Dayton, Ohio Larry Smith became a film buff from a very young age when his parents used movies as a reward for good grades. Just out of high school he made friends with several serious film buffs and historians that led to a passionate study of early film. Spending his vacations attending classic film festivals and writing to actors and directors of Hollywood's golden age, he then turned to more serious vocations connected to the film business. After volunteer programming several film series at museums and films festivals, he was hired to manage, book and promote a repertory cinema, the New Neon Movies. Special events at the Neon included hosting Janet Leigh, Quentin Tarnatino, Kim Hunter, Cliff Robertson, and others on stage before introducing their films in person. But Larry's biggest success came from his partnership with John Harvey, a projectionist that had rebuilt Cinerama projectors, a custom built Cinerama deeply curved screen, and most importantly assembled 35mm, 3-panel prints of several Cinerama titles that he showed at his home. Together John and Larry took out the necessary seats and part of the ceiling at the Neon to install a giant, floor to roof, wall-to-wall, 146 degree deeply curved screen made out of over-lapping screen ribbons and installed the 3-interlocked projectors and giant 6' tall reel-to-reel 7-track stereo soundtrack playback unit. Visitors came from more than 40 states and a dozen countries to see true 3-projector Cinerama. The Cinerama showings were only scheduled to last a couple of months but ran close to four years. Eventually Smith left the Neon to join the Motion Picture, Broadcast and Recorded Sound division of the Library of Congress where he now works as a nitrate film specialist.